Meanings
bucko1
plural buckos · plural buckoes
- alsoattributiveinformalA boastful or bullying man.
And the poor spailpin fanach running like the devil, his clothes tearing on briars and brambles, and his feet soaking and dirty water running out of his boots, and the three big buckos giving him every dirty look if he fustered or faltered, looks that'd sour milk or peel paint from walls.
1997, Dan Yashinsky, Ghostwise: A Book of Midnight Stories, →ISBN, page 821 more example
A far cry from the miserable existance^([sic – meaning existence]) of the common sailor brought about by bucko mates and bible preaching captains on the large ocean-going vessels, life aboard a doghole wasn't for everyone and losing your ship on the rocks or being rolled like a cork on a big wave chased many back to the open sea with an indelible meaning of the expression 'doghole' forever stamped in their minds.
1983, Billy C. Lewis, “Doghole Schooners of the Redwood Coast”, in The Compass, page 24 - informalUsed as a term of address: young lad, friend, pal.
He did an imitation of a pirate: "Arr, Arr, Arr, me buckos."
2007, Howard [A.] Norman, Devotion, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 90
Bucko2
Origin
From buck (“male antelope, deer, etc.; adventurous or high-spirited young man”) + -o (colloquializing suffix).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with bucko
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Cite this entry
bucko. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bucko
“bucko.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bucko. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bucko,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bucko.
Source: bucko on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.